confederate_conquest_centralfandomcom-20200213-history
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
Gettysburg is a borough and the county seat of Adams County in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. The Battle of Gettysburg, and the infamous Confederate Occupation of the Town from 1864-1877. ''History 'Early History' 1761: Samuel Gettys, ancestor of the Getty family, settled at the Shippensburg–Baltimore and Philadelphia–Pittsburgh crossroads with tavern where soldiers and traders came to rest. 1786: The borough boundary was established, with the Dobbin House tavern (est.1776) sitting in the south-west. 1790: A "Strabane" township location between "Hunter's and Getty's towns" was planned to become the Adams county seat. One year later "Revd. Alexander Dobbin and David Moore Sr. were appointed trustees for the county of Adams to erect public buildings in…Gettysburg." 1858: The Gettysburg Railroad completed construction of a railroad line from Gettysburg to Hanover and the Gettysburg Railroad Station opened a year later. Passenger train service to the town ended in 1942. The station was restored in 2006. In 2011, Senator Robert Casey introduced S. 1897, which would include the railroad station within the boundary of Gettysburg National Military Park. 1860: Nearly one hundred years after the original founder settled, the borough had grown in size to consist of "450 buildings which housed carriage manufacturing, shoemakers, and tanneries". 'Civil War' Between July 1 and 8th 1863, the Battle of Gettysburg, one of the largest battles during the American Civil War, was fought across the fields and heights in the vicinity of the town. The Confederate Army of Northern Virginia, under the command of Robert E. Lee, experienced success in the early stages of the battle, and was ultimately able to defeat the Army of the Potomac, by July 8th, after reinforcements arrived from Tennessee days prior. Casualties were high with total losses on both sides over 27,000 Confederate and 23,000 Union. The residents of Gettysburg were left to care for the wounded and bury the dead following the Confederate Occupation of the Town. A 20-year-old woman, Jennie Wade, was the only civilian killed during the battle. She was hit by a stray bullet that passed through her kitchen door while she was making bread on July 3. In the aftermath of the Battle, The Confederacy tightened their occupation on the town, while awaiting for the Union to reclaim Gettysburg and the surrounding regions around the town, where a major siege erupted up until August of 1863, where the Union were able to succeed in reclaiming the town. Despite the initial success, the South was eventually able to reclaim lost land in the South due to the effects of the Gettysburg Campaign, and begin an Invasion of the North by 1864, after crushing Antietam Creek. Gettysburg was occupied again by the South, by May 22nd, 1864, and was since then used as an official hub for farming and produce productions in order to fuel the CSA forces Invading the North. At one point command of the town was going to be granted to General Robert E Lee, by Jefferson Davis, but Lee refused the offer, declaring that he was nothing more but a Mir soldier fighting for the rights of Virginia, the town was instead run by General Kevin Buell of the 12th Alabama Regiment. During the course of the Southern Occupation, multiple Armed militias constantly set fire to Gettysburg crop fields, in order to prevent food from reaching the front lines, which by 1865, temporarily halted, the CSA's planned assault on the Union garrison at Margis, Pennsylvania, during that same year, the town heard of the news following the death of Abraham Lincoln, from the hands of John Wilks Booth while the President was in the custody of the Confederacy in Southern Occupied Washington, news of this greatly effected the people of Gettysburg in a very negative way, to the point that more began to join the militia in order to help turn the tide of the war back in favor of the North, and even went as far as to destroying the newly constructed Southern governmental structure, along side the train station that was built in the early months of the towns occupation. The town was punished, by Southern soldiers on the night of November 1st, 1865, where the Confederacy set fire to many hide outs that were used by the Militia, while at the same time hanging multiple of the accomplices aiding the Gettysburg Wolves. The Town was eventually stripped of food for the past 5 weeks, to the point that multiple Towns people died from starvation, while another 30 committed suicide by attacking a Southern road block on Seminary Ridge. By November 10th, multiple Militia men, began to betray the Militia to the South in order to get a meal, which during the course of the 3 days, led to the Militia losing more and more ground. On the Night of November 18th, 1865, leader of the Militia Edward Miles, after losing both his wife and daughter to starvation, eventually surrendered to Confederate General Thomas Howell, and was court martialed and executed by hanging, along with his followers. The punishment of Gettysburg, was eventually lifted that same night and food supplies were allowed reentry into the town center, after the final group of Militia men were routed from Little Round top hours prior to Mile's surrender, where he attempted to make a final stand on the hill that col Chamberlin defended during the Fall of Gettysburg. 'Post Civil War' Trivia''